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Author Topic: Why are commercials so damned boring? Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 10-09-2005 11:19 PM                    The latest Coke commercial that we're running is some sort of short story about a couple of college dorks on a road trip across America. Fascinating stuff. But if that's not enough, it's a sequel to a previous Coke commercial about the same bunch on the same road trip. Before that, we had an ad about a bunch of people who gathered together on a roof top in the city to sing about Coke. Someone point me to the nearest Coke machine! I can't wait to spend all of my money on Coke products! About the best Coke commercial ever was the one that featured the "Mafia Movie Madness" student film. ("You got ID, Grandma? How do I know that ain't a wig?") Of course that ad got all the "Italian Rights" groups in an uproad for stereo-typing Italians as mobsters even though everyone I know of Italian heritage laughed their asses off when they watched it. I'm not trying to pick on Coke for any particular reason, you can insert just about any corporate entity. Occasionally we have good entertaining commercials. Geico, for example, gets lucky sometimes. I think the Geico commercial with that exercise guy is funny as hell. Turner Classic Movies had some good ones too: "Dirty Dozen On Ice" and "Rocky" were both great. But for the most part, where's the creativity? Where is the comedy? Where are the "Mafia Movie Madness" ideas? Where are the "Budweiser Frogs", the Clara "Where's The Beef" Pellers, the "California Rasins" (remember them??), etc? Why do we all have to wait for one day out of the year (Super Bowl Sunday) for good entertaining funny commercials? Maybe if commercials (in particular, the ones that play in movie theaters) were better (read funnier) and not so damn repetitious and boring, or in the case of the latest batch of Coke commercials, stupid and pointless, people wouldn't mind them as much. Thoughts?  |  IP: Logged Amanda Jones Film Handler Posts: 92 From: Indianapolis, IN, USA Registered: Aug 2005 posted 10-10-2005 02:35 AM                     I loved the Mafia Coke commerical. Very funny. The roof top Coke was cool because it was an updated version of a similar commerical from the 70s with people of various backgrounds getting together to sing and have a coke. Does AMC still run movieticket.com ads with those 3 college frat guys? I remember one where they are hovered around a computer and one guy goes "there's no R in tickets"  |  IP: Logged Shane Cooper Expert Film Handler Posts: 232 From: Little Rock, Arkansas Registered: Jun 2004 posted 10-10-2005 03:52 AM                     I have to agree that the Coke commercials are lame. I actually had a discussion with my Coke rep. about how iritating they were. We both agreed that Pepsi was much more creative with their ads. I don't know about anyone else, but the whenever I see the Burger King commercials featuring the King they crack me up.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 10-10-2005 08:54 AM                    quote: Amanda Jones The roof top Coke was cool In my opinion, the cool thing to do would have been to find a creative way to poke fun at the 70s commercial. Not try to modernize it as a crappy music video shot with the ubiquitous seizure-cam. That just tells me they have no new ideas.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-10-2005 11:27 AM                        We don't run commercials but a neighboring theatre circuited a print to us a few weeks ago and they forgot to strip their commercials from reel 1, so I ran them for myself just to see what they were like. I can understand why the public gets bored/mad about them. Talk about a waste of 2 minutes. I don't even remember what they were now, that's how wonderful of an impression they left on me.  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 10-10-2005 03:51 PM                     And the fact those were still on the print shows that the revenue from them does NOT go towards paying competent people!  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 10-10-2005 04:19 PM                        Ads that are "just unappealing" on the small screen are "beyond obnoxious" on the large sceen. That is the reason TV shows are next to impossible to translate to the large screen unless some new element can be discovered. Louis  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-10-2005 04:33 PM                        quote: And the fact those were still on the print shows that the revenue from them does NOT go towards paying competent people! Well, accidents DO happen. We've been getting prints from them for 15 years and this was the first time it happpened.  |  IP: Logged Dominic Espinosa Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1172 From: Boulder Creek, CA. Registered: Jan 2004 posted 10-10-2005 04:49 PM                     My personal favorite Coke ads have to be Football Town USA for no real reason other than it's just kind of cool. And of course, Movie Theater Hero. That was cool. Runners up in the rolling stock category include the Tiger Woods/Caddy Shack spoof and of course the original trailer for Axe. The tribal women one. I laughed at that one pretty good.  |  IP: Logged Bruce Hansen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 847 From: Stone Mountain, GA, USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 10-10-2005 04:55 PM                     Greed = Stupidity  |  IP: Logged Steve Scott Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1300 From: Minneapolis, MN Registered: Sep 2000 posted 10-10-2005 08:24 PM                     American TV commercials have come to phase out the punchline from commercials recently. And slowly they've started to remove the whole entertaining aspect of sitting captive to a corporation for thirty seconds. Instead of bitching about my most hated commercials (which are all probably just restricted to the bowels of Minneapolis/St. Paul TV production's rash of annoying sing-along songs), I believe the Sierra Mist Commercials are very premium  |  IP: Logged Brian Hogan Expert Film Handler Posts: 119 From: Charlotte, North Carolina, USA Registered: Jul 2001 posted 10-11-2005 07:41 PM                     i remember the very first movietickets.com ad. with the family on their little mission and the kid gets left behind. mom is yelling LEAVE HIM! and, sure enough, on the follow up ad the kid isnt there anymore. thats some hardcore movie ticket reconnaissance for ya.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 10-11-2005 09:42 PM                    I forgot about that one! You're right, that was great.  |  IP: Logged Chad Souder Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 962 From: Waterloo, IA, USA Registered: Feb 2000 posted 10-12-2005 11:52 AM                     I don't think Coke ads are that bad. If you were in business over 100 years you might try something different, too. It's better than that horrible Duracell family a few years back, or Terry Bradshaw doing spots for Supercuts. Now if all ads could be as good as the Miller High Life ones...  |  IP: Logged Bruce McGee Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1776 From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular. Registered: Aug 1999 posted 10-13-2005 07:50 AM                     I was so glad when the 'rooftop' Coke commercials ended in our theatres. I cant stand rap, and I dont like what they did to that old tune either. That 'documentary' commercial is getting old too. Why do they have to cut and edit everything so fast? You cant even get a chance to get a good look at the image on the screen before it jumps to something else. BTW: The rooftop commercial is still playing in the lobby. Ugh.  |  IP: Logged

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